FIFTY 'PLANES A DAY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 149, 13 March 1918, Page 5

FIFTY 'PLANES A DAY

-4 AMERICA'S HUGE OUTPUT A MONSTER FACTORY The United States Government has asked for a voto of .£55,400,000 for bombs for aeroplanes. Some time ago it appropriated £W,000,000 for aeroplanes, and for months has been busy spending that money. Factories have beon built or made over for the purpose, and the work is proceeding at a pace which augurs -the early output of an enormous air fleet. The first fruits of • this movement, according to the, "Scientific American," are seen in the completion of an aeroplane factory, the largest of its kind in the world, which has 'been built in a little over three months' time and is already actively engaged in turning out 'planes for tho United States Government. The enormous size of this factory and the short spaco of time in which it was built, render this one of the most conspicuous examples of what can bo done by ». combination of brains, energy, and capital meeting quickly the imperative demands of the war into which we' have entered. It reaches 900 ft. in one direction, and 1300 ft., or, soy, a quarter of a mile, in the other direction, and the whole of this area is covered by a single roof, and constitutes, except for a fire partition wall, a single shop. For structural purposes the shop is divided into nine bays, each bay being 100 ft. wide and 1300 ft. in length. Through caoh bay runs a gallery. Upon the floor is done tho work of construction of the iparts, and upon the galleries, each of which runs tho full 1300 ft. of length of tho building, is carried the work of assembling. The layout of tho plant upon this vast floor 6pace has been so arranged that tho raw material, in tho shape of sawn spruce, brought here mainly from the forests of Oregon, enter the building at each.end, and the finished 'planes leave it at the other end—the material moving from stage to stage and from machine to machine as the work- proceeds. Near the incoming end of the building'have been constructed some enormous dry kilns which have a capacity of 1,000,000 feet B.M. In the drying-out process tho lumbor, rough sawn to suitable sizes for ■ the struts, frames, etc., is loaded on to trucks and run into tho.kilns, jvhere it is subjected to steam .heat for a period of time which is determined by the condition of tho lumber. In the, succeeding bays of the building the wood is planed, millod, and worked down to the finished size in thousands of wood-working -machines of the very latest t.npe. Nest to the wood-working machines one comes to -a vast space where a large force of cabinetmakers, skilled in exact and carefully-finished Work, -are engaged in building up tne skeleton of the wings and the fuselages. Tho next process is the covering of the wings and bodies with linen—a work which in itself calls for r, large section of the floor 6pace. The covered winffs and bodies are next passed on to the varnishing department, where tho "dope," which is almost pure rubber, is applied in several coats. The last touch is to paint the machines the appropriate characteristic colour and put upon the the insignia of the United Statfts Service. The machinery requires 40,000 horsepower to drive it, and 15,000 operative,are employed. With everything in going order, aeroplanes will be turned out at the rate of 50 per 1 day. If the supply of motors keeps pace with the output of 'planes, when' the factory is being run to its full capacity, this will mean that a completed aeroplane could be wheeled ■ out of the factory and take light in the air every 9* minutes' of a,n eight-lio-ir day. And this is only one of many .oreat. plants which' an engaged in the work ' of getting ready to. "put out tlie eyes of the German Army on the Western front, when the United States forces ]om in the great Allied drive next spring.